How to Motivate Yourself in 2026 (PART 3)

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In this episode, Dr. Jon Finn continues the How to Motivate Yourself for 2026 series by tackling a critical question: how do you turn a future vision into clear, meaningful action in an increasingly complex, AI-driven world?

As organisations prepare to scale AI and reduce headcount, many of the tasks humans have traditionally been paid to do are changing or disappearing. Dr. Finn explains why the key to thriving in this environment isn’t working harder or setting more goals — it’s learning how to manage your Brain States and align them with what truly matters to you.

Building on Parts 1 and 2, this episode focuses on creating and breaking down your Future Ambitious Meaningful (FAM) Story — a practical planning system that connects your long-term vision (health, happiness, contribution) to what you need to focus on this year, this month, this week, and today.

You’ll be guided through Chapter 16 of Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution: Breaking Down Your FAM Journey, where Dr. Finn walks you step by step through translating aspirations into a flexible, actionable plan that supports motivation, clarity, and sustainable performance.

This episode is designed to be practical, reflective, and non-overwhelming — helping you create direction in uncertainty and make working on your brain states feel meaningful right now.

Part 4 will continue the series by exploring the daily habits that turn your FAM Story into consistent action.

Transcript

Setting The 2026 Context

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Hello, habit mechanics, it's Dr. John Finn here. I hope you're having a great week so far. This is part three of how to motivate yourself for 2026. So if we zoom out and recap on what we've been talking about, we recognize the world is more complex than ever. And as we go into 2026, things will be getting more complex. One very interesting thing that I heard this week on a uh a business uh program, uh news program, was one of the co-founders and co-CEOs of one of the fastest growing sports brands in the world, a UK-based company. Um and the CEO of that company was saying that he spends a lot of time speaking to other CEOs. Um sorry, he's the co-CEO, it's Tim and his brother that founded the business. And he was talking about the fact that 80% of the CEOs he's speaking to are currently getting ready to roll out their plans to really scale AI in their organizations, and they're currently working out how much headcount they're going to reduce. I know it's uncomfortable to talk about, but it's real. Businesses are seeing this technology and they are um recognising that it can help them to do things more efficiently and more effectively. So he was saying, you know, very, very clearly that 2026 will be the year where we start to see significant reduction in headcount because of AI. Um, and all that means is is that some of the tasks that humans have traditionally been paid to do will no longer need to be done by humans, but there will be lots of other tasks that will emerge, um and lots of other opportunities that will emerge. But the key for capitalising on those opportunities and the key for being healthy, happy, and at our best more often is brain state management. So, first of all, we've got to recognise our brain states, we've got to understand those three brain states, and then ultimately we've got to understand the six core habits that are gonna allow us to get our brain states working really well, and if we're doing that, we're becoming a habit mechanic, and we know that to get habit mechanic mastery, we really need to understand how to coach ourselves to do it, and that's why we train people to become certified habit mechanic coaches. But what we've been doing over the past few episodes is we've been thinking about well, how do we even work out why I need to be getting my brand state sorted out today and this week and this month, and to do that we need to work out our future vision for ourselves, and to make that easier, we we can create a plan about the future and work that back to today so that it makes it easier for us to understand and prioritize getting our brain states working really well, and the planning system that we've created over the years, we call it the future ambitious meaningful story. So if you've listened to the past uh two episodes, you should understand what that is now, and in the last episode, you should have been just starting to think about what's important to you. Um, if you did the exercise in the last episode, that really emerged for us out of um probably not hundreds, but doing lots of you know, tens, twenty, thirty, forty uh workshops where we started to play about with value-based thinking to get people to think about what their values are, but we found that it didn't really resonate with people. So the exercise that um we asked you to complete in the last podcast or to think about, which is from chapter 15 of Train Your Brain for the AR Evolution, it's that's just really getting you to think about what's important for you and who do you admire and who do you look up to, and what kind of person do you want to be. And when you've got that understanding, it's much easier to do what I'm gonna ask you to do today, which is to start creating your fam story. That is to start connecting the kind of things that you'd like to have and be doing in the distant future, and I'm sure that's primarily gonna be you want to be healthy and happy, connecting those things with well, what does that mean that I need to achieve in the next um 12 months and then the next six months, and then the next three months, and this month, and then this week, and then today. So that's what I'm gonna ask you to do. Excuse me, and we're drawing on chapter 16 from Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution, and this chapter is called Breaking Down Your Fam Journey. Fam stands for Future Ambitious Meaningful Story. Breaking down your fam journey, the step-by-step action plan. So by the time we finish this episode, and by the time if you want to, you complete the exercise, you'll have a sense of what you want to be working on um in the long, short, or long, medium, and short term, and that's really helpful. And then the idea is that you start to review that um periodically, but we'll get to that. So we're actually gonna have another three episodes on motivation. So this is the third episode, we'll end up with six. So we're just breaking everything down into simple steps. So that's what you're gonna hear next. It's chapter 16 from Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution. If you don't already have the full book, you can get it from our website. Um, you can get the ebook or the digital book, the uh audiobook, and the physical book if you want for a really uh special price. But right now, you can just uh enjoy chapter sixteen. Don't let this overwhelm you, but I would really recommend that you do write something down. So maybe go for a walk, have a listen, come back down, come back, listen to it again. Just start mapping things out. Nothing is set in stone, everything is changeable, but it starts by writing something down or typing it out. Enjoy. Chapter 16 Breaking Down Your Fam Journey. The step by step action plan. Success cycle location. Step two progress. 20% complete. Now that you've explored your inspirations and reflected on your strengths, it's time to transform these insights into a practical plan. The task director will guide you through creating a detailed roadmap that connects your brain states to your biggest goals. The FAM form provides a systematic approach to this planning process. You'll learn how to break down your long-term vision into specific actions that optimize your brain states day by day. This creates a clear line of sight from your future ambitions to your daily choices. As Sarah discovered, this planning process brings clarity to every level of your journey. Once I had my complete fam story, I could see exactly how managing my brain states today would help me achieve my 10-year vision. Each daily action became a meaningful step toward my bigger goals. Broadly, the FAM form makes you think about the future and present in the following terms. What do I want to achieve in the distant future? What do I need to do in the next one to four years to achieve my distant future goals? What do I need to do in the next 12 months to achieve my one to four year goals? What do I need to do in the next six months to achieve my twelve-month goals? What do I need to do in the next three months to achieve my six-month goals? What do I need to do in the next thirty days to achieve my three-month goals? What do I need to do this week to achieve my goals for the next thirty days? What do I need to prioritize today to achieve my goals for this week? Sometimes we might feel reluctant to commit to achieving a major long-term objective. But the beauty of the FAM form is that it allows us to be flexible. We can decide to pivot and change our goals. They are not set in stone. I encourage everyone who wants to be their best to periodically think about their own long-term goals. I step back to reflect and use the fam form to update my fam story every four to eight weeks. My fam story goals change because my life circumstances change. Sometimes the changes to my goals are tiny and sometimes they are big. But what is most important is that I am engaging in a purposeful reflection and planning process. This helps me learn about myself and to be at my best. The FAM form helped me see how it all connected, Sarah shared. My 10-year vision included writing a novel while maintaining a thriving career and family life. That meant optimizing my high charge states for creative work, using AI tools effectively in medium charge periods, and mastering my recharge patterns. Each layer of the iceberg showed me exactly what to work on next. Here are the FAM form questions to help you create your own fam story. Remember, the answers you give and the goals you set are not set in stone. They are flexible and can be changed at any time to make them more helpful for you. 1. Think about what you'd like to be doing and what you'd like to have in the medium to distant future. For example, 10 years into the future or more. Some words to get you thinking about your future goals. Location, family, possessions, friends and relationships, health, home, money, roles and responsibilities, job. Tip. If you are not sure, start by thinking about what you do not want your future to look like. Developing your long-term goals will take time. The aim of this exercise is not to create perfect goals, but to get you thinking and started on your journey to having a clearer understanding about what you want your future self and life to look like. Remember, whatever you write down can be changed. Should you set goals that might feel unrealistic? I do because I have found that even if I do not achieve these goals, having a high level of expectation is helpful. It means I achieve a higher level of happiness and performance than I would have if I'd set myself less ambitious goals. This is something I have learned through practice. Should you make an exact copy of my approach? No. You need to develop an approach that works best for you. You will only work out the best way to set the type of goals that work best for you by trying things out. Goals are powerful tools, but it can take a lot of trial and error to learn how to use them effectively. Why times five? To make your long-term goals more meaningful and powerful, try to understand why you want to achieve them. An effective way to do this is to ask yourself, why, five times. For example, if you want to get a promotion at work, you might ask yourself, why? The answer might be because you want to earn more money. So you would then ask yourself, why do you want to earn more money? That answer might be because you want to move to a bigger house. Then you would ask yourself, why do you want to live in a bigger house? This answer could be so my young children have a garden to play in. The next question you might ask yourself is, why is it important for you to have a garden your children can play in? The answer could be, I understand the importance of outdoor play for healthy development, and I want to provide a space at home where they can do this. By the time you have asked yourself why, at least five times you will develop a clear understanding of the deeper reasons for your goals and ambitions. The more meaningful your reasons for wanting to achieve a goal, the more powerful they will be in helping you persist and succeed. Now let's get back to our fan form questions. 2. Think about what you need to achieve in the next 1 to 4 years to make your distant to medium future goals attainable. 3. Think about what you need to achieve in the next 12 months to make your 1 to 4 year goals attainable. 4. Think about what you need to achieve in the next six months to make your 12-month goals attainable. 5. Think about what you need to achieve in the next three months to make your six month goals attainable. With your long-term fam story taking shape, you're ready to discover how these aspirations translate into daily actions. In the next chapter, we'll explore the foundational habits that will turn your vision into reality, the daily practices that optimize your brain states and steadily move you towards your goals.